Valentin Alexandrovich Serov was born to the composer Alexander Serov and his fellow composer wife Valentina Bergman. He is said to be of partial Jewish descent. In his childhood he studied under Ilya Repin (in Paris and Moscow) and in the St.Petersburg Academy of Arts (1880-1885) under Pavel Chistyakov. Serovs early creativity was sparked by the influence of the realistic art of Repin and strict plastic system of Chistyakov. The biggest influences on Serov were paintings of the old masters in museums of Russia and Western Europe, friendship with Mikhail Vrubel and later with Konstantin Korovin, and the creative atmosphere of the Abramtsevo Colony circle to which he was closely connected.

The best works of Serov are among the greatest of Russian realistic art. He taught in the Moscow School of painting, sculpturing and architecture from 1897 to 1909), and among his students were Pavel Kuznetsov, N.N. Sapunov, Martiros Saryan, Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin, N.P. Ulyanov, and Konstantin Yuon.

The Moscow artists who began to move towards Impressionism in the 1880s admired the works of the young Serov, his pastoral landscapes so clearly revealing the lyricism of modest events in daily life. Benefi ting from the instruction of his teachers, Repine and Tchistiakov, he became the fi nest Russian portraitist of his generation. His skill is evident in some of his most beautiful paintings, Young girl with peaches or Ulysses and Nausicaa. Serovs creative work and experience opened the way for Russian painting to become part of pictorial art in the 20th century.

The album and illustrated catalogue include all paintings and sculptures as well as the most significant graphic works from the collection of the Russian Museum. Includes two articles, one of them is devoted to Valentin Serov' oeuvre. The other one acquaints with the collection of works by the master in the Russian Museum. The publication is supplemented with commentaries, chronicle of life and oeuvre of the artist and archival photographs. 570 illustrations in full color. 12.9 x 10.2 x 1.2 inches

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